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SERMON ON EDUCATION, 


PREACHED BY 


/ 

REV. ISAIAH G. I)E GRASSE, A. B., 


MINISTER OF EPISCOPAL FREE CHURCH, NEW-YORK, AND MISSIONARY AT JAMAICA 

AND HALLET’S COVE, L. I. 













PUBLISHED BY REGlUEST, 

FOR THE BFNEFIT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 


<V 


' . 


NEW-YORK : 

JAMES VAN NORDEN, PRINTER, 
No. 27 Pine-Street. 




183U 




New- York, Feb. 18, 1839. 


Rev. and dear Sir: 

The Superintending Committee of the Episcopal Free Church are of opinion, 
that the sermon delivered by you yesterday afternoon, at the request of the School 
Committee, contains much valuable information, which should be disseminated 
through the community. They consequently held a meeting immediately after 
Divine service, when the following resolution was unanimously adopted : 

Resolved , That the Superintending Committee most respectfully solicit from the 
Rev. Isaiah G. De Grasse, a copy of his sermon delivered this afternoon, at the 
request of the School Committee, for publication; the avails of which to be appro- 
priated to the support of the Sunday School of this Church. 

We are, Rev. Sir, 

Yours, very respectfully, 

John Peterson, 

Henry Williams, 

Henry Nott, 

Joseph H. Remsea, 

Benjamin Freeman, 

Edward R. Campbell, 

Charles Brown, 

Samuel Y. Berry, 



New- York , Feb. 1 9th, 1839. 

Gentlemen, — 

I received your letter, accompanied with the resolution, requesting the sermon 
which I preached on Sunday afternoon last, for publication. The discourse was 
written without anticipating a request for iis appearance before the public; but 
since, gentlemen, you have thought that the sermon “ contains information suffi- 
ciently valuable to be disseminated through the community,” and have so earnestly 
requested the same to be presented to them, I will sacrifice all private considerations, 
and yield to your wishes. 

I here give it into your hands, with but few alterations, and the addition of a few 
notes, just as I delivered it from my pulpit, with my earnest prayer to God, that all 
who have in charge the rising generation, will adopt that course, in regard to their 
education, which will procure for them both temporal and eternal happiness. 

With sentiments of respect and affection, 

I remain, gentlemen, 

Your friend and servant in Christ, 

Isaiah G. De Grasse. 

To Messrs. John Peterson, \ 

Henry Williams, i 

Henry Nott, ¥ 

Joseph H. Remsea, V ^ 

> Committee. 

Benjamin Freeman, f 

Edward R. Campbell, k 

Charles Brown, \ 

Samuel Y. Berry, J 



*** This sermon was preached in conformity to a resolution, which was passed 
at a meeting convened to take into consideration the cause of our public schools, 
imposing upon each of the clergy the duty of preaching a sermon on the subject of 
Education. This sermon was written, and preached to my own congregation, 
merely as a performance of that duty, and not with the remotest idea of its ever ap- 
pearing before the public. My own feelings, and the haste with which I was 
obliged to compose the discourse, from heavy pressure of other duties, would cer- 
tainly prompt me to decline its publication ; but the request of my V estry, and other 
friends who heard it at the time of its delivery, has been so urgent, that I feel myself 
obliged to sacrifice my own feelings, concede to their wishes, and suffer the sermon 
to be perused by the public, with a few corrections, just as I delivered it from my 
pulpit. If it will the least subserve the interests of my people; cause education to 
be more appreciated, and be the humble means of increasing the number of chil- 
dren at our public schools, I shall be amply rewarded, and feel that in my effort I 
have not laboured in vain. 




SERMON. 


“ That the soul be without knowledge is not goed.” — Proverbs , xix. 2. 


The present age, my friends, is not unjustly honoured in being 
styled the most enlightened age which the world ever saw. 
There is now no need, as in days of yore, of making journeys 
to far off climes in pursuit of knowledge ; nor do we live in those 
darksome times, when learning dwelt in cloisters, or was mono- 
polized by a few of the rich and noble. Ours, fortunately, is 
the bright era, when the portals of science are open wide to all ; 
when each man’s firehearth may become a temple of letters, and 
a receptacle of wisdom. Messengers of knowledge are flying 
through the air, mounted as it were upon wings of vapour, scat- 
tering light and illumination in their onward path. A child now 
might teach Plato, and Socrates might sit at the feet of a school- 
girl and learn wisdom. 

“ It is the divinity that stirs within him,” that has prompted 
man thus to exercise his faculties, and advance to his present 
high attainments. It exists, implanted by the hand of God, in 
every human being, to a greater or less extent, and it is a spirit 
which cannot be repressed. 

This power employed, however, may be exerted, either for 
immense good or immense evil to the individual, or to the com- 
munity of which he forms a part. Its effects, too, are bounded 
not by time, but stretch forward into futurity, and affect the 
eternal interests of man’s deathless soul. It may be made the 
instrument of procuring the greatest amount of temporal hap- 
piness, or producing the most alarming amount of injury and 
misery. By it God may be glorified, or God may be blas- 
phemed ; and by it the holy cause of religion may be advanced, 
or it may be injured, and the cross despised and trampled down. 


6 


Such is the power of the mind. For good or for evil it may 
be exerted, through time and eternity its effects will be seen 
and felt. 

The right direction of the mind, then, my brethren, to use its 
power, should be a matter of sacred importance to all. The ut- 
most care should be taken that it knowingly receives no wrong 
impressions, and that it also be brought to its full and healthy 
developement. What may be the latest period to which this 
mental training may with safety be deferred, I will not presume 
to say ; but with certainty I may tell you, that no period can be 
too early.* Knowledge of some kind is acquired by the infant 
that dandles on its mother’s knee. Even at that early date the 
mind may commence its divergency from the point of truth. 
Then it may receive some impressions which will cast a shade 
upon its whole future character, which the labour, and toil, and 
anxiety of parents or teachers will scarcely, if ever, be able to 
remove, and thus prove a source of misery or crime to the child 
till the latest breath of its life. For one single error (counted 
by some perhaps small) uncorrected, many a man has struggled 
hard against a wayward disposition, or ultimately been led to a 
prison or the scaffold. The sin too often lies at the door of a 
fond, but too indulgent parent. 

What a warning to fathers and to mothers, to check froward- 
ness of temper, or malevolent feelings in a child, in the very ear- 
liest indications of it ! For to leave them unchecked, no one can 
anticipate the consequences. 

* Cicero, in various parts of his work De oratoribus, when speaking of the 
Roman education in the early ages of the Commonwealth, contrasted with the less 
virtuous practice of the more refined periods, often adverts to the great attention 
which was paid to the early formation of the mind and character. Children, we 
are informed, were not surrendered by mothers to careless and ignorant nurses, but 
the careful nurture of their offspring, the rudiments of their education, and the ne- 
cessary occupations of their household, were considered as the highest points of 
female merit. And next to the care bestowed in the instilment of virtuous morals, 
a remarkable degree of attention was given to the language of children, and to the 
attainment of a correctness and purity of expression. Cicero tells us, that the 
Gracchi, two noble young Romans, who endeavoured to reform the growing cor- 
ruptions of the state, were educated, “ non tarn in groemio, quam in sermone mairisf 
equally in the cultivation of the language, as in the bosom of their mother. * 


7 


To illustrate my thought, let me carry you, for a moment, to 
the dungeon of a prisoner who is condemned to die, to hear 
him tell a touching, heart-rending tale. Come, parents, and see 
him. A friend sitting by his side, inquires of him his history, 
and the cause of his crime. 

“ It was my mother !” he replied. 

“ Is it possible ?” said his friend. « Is it true ? Can a fond and 
loving mother be so lost to love and duty to her son, as to be 
guilty of an act so fatal ?” 

“ Ay sir ! it was my mother. She taught me deadly lessons 
in my cradle. She schooled me in my boyhood to falsehood 
and crime. She did not in words, to be sure, tell me to lie, to 
steal, to murder, or to bear false witness ; oh, no ! she would 
have told me that these were wrong ; but she learned me to do 
them all. She roused my passions, not my principles, into ac- 
tivity. She provoked the one, and suppressed the other. Did 
my father reprove my improprieties, she petted me, and de- 
nounced him. She crossed his better purposes, and defeated 
all his designs, until at last she made my passions too strong for 
my government, not less than hers, and left me knowing the 
true, yet the victim of the false. What is more, while my in- 
tellect, in its calmer hours, taught me that virtue was the only 
source of true felicity, my ungovernable passions set the other- 
wise sovereign reason at defiance, and trampled it under foot. 
Yes, in that last hour of eternal retribution, if called upon to 
denounce or to accuse, I can point but to one as the author of 
all — the weakly, fond, misjudging, misguiding mother. She who 
surely loved me beyond all things else, has been the uncon- 
scious cause of all my misery and crime. I can remember 
well, how sedulously she encouraged and prompted my infant 
passions, uncontrolled by her reason ; how she stimulated me to 
artifices, by frequently deceiving, and teaching me to disobey 
and deceive, my father. She bribed me to do my duty, and 
laughed at my misdemeanours. She taught me the command- 
ments, and rose up to break them. She solemnly told me that 
there was a God superior to all, omniscient and omnipresent; 
but she acted in opposition to all his laws, and thus encouraged 
me, by every ingenuity, to violate his precepts and disregard his 


8 


presence. Oh ! had she not done all this, I had not been here, 
chained, and condemned to die. My mother, oh ! my mother 
has done it all !” 

“ This,” said his companion, “ is a horrible thought ; but still 
my sober reflection pronounces it awfully true.” 

The ill-fated prisoner then raised his chained hands to his 
weeping eyes, and exclaimed, “ It pains me to say it, but it is, alas, 
too true. I have analyzed my own history, and the causes of 
my character and fortunes now, and I charge all upon the wo- 
man who gave me birth. From one influence, I have traced 
another, until I have the sweeping amount of twenty years of 
crime and sorrow upon my head, and a death of disgrace before 
me, all, all owing to the first ten or twelve years of my infant 
education, when, too, the only teacher I knew was my mother, 
whom, however, even now, though the real cause of my dread- 
ful fate, I dearly love.”* 

Call this, if you please, my beloved brethren, a fancy picture ; 
but remember, that in all its lineaments, and with all its colour- 
ing, it is an exact representation of real life. Go to the stub- 
born and rebellious boy ; go to the thief ; go to the midnight 
robber ; go to the gambler ; go to the prison house, where sits 
the wretch in chains ; go to the gallows, where the murderer is 
about to be swung off into eternity, and show the picture, and 
each in succession will tell you, that it bears a striking resem- 
blance to himself. 

Seeing then, my friends and brethren, from the above affect- 
ting illustration, that the whole future welfare of every being 
hangs upon the bend which is given to the mind in infancy and 
youth, can there be any thing of more vital importance than 
the giving it, at those early periods, pure and wholesome instruc- 


* The above illustration was taken from some work which the author of this 
sermon read several years since. It is not pretended to be the precise language of 
the writer from whom it was taken. The name of the work from which it was 
selected, unfortunately, he cannot at present call to mind. The idea, and the 
language, however, as well as it could be remembered, was placed in his common- 
place book. The great moral lesson, nevertheless, which it teaches, and which 
prompted the writer to introduce the illustration, is too plain to be misunderstood 
by parents, and he sincerely hopes that it will leave an impression which will never 
be forgotten. 


tion, and correction ; that the soul be without it surely is not 
good, considering the benefit which will accrue to the individual 
only. 

But the good of the community is likewise at stake by this 
early improvement and correction. 

As all communities are made up of individuals, their general 
welfare depends upon the right culture which is given to the 
minds of those individuals. The children of a nation are, in 
the natural course of things, to grow up and take the places of 
their sires. If, then, happily, a judicious course has been adopted, 
and a good education bestowed, then the government of the coun- 
try will necessarily fall into the hands of those who are pre- 
pared to receive it ; learning, appreciated, will flourish, and the 
people be intelligent and happy. For it will be found true, that 
intelligence, the producer of happiness, must always prevail over 
ignorance, the mother all vice and misery. Equally unquestion- 
able, also, is the fact, that the real wealth of a nation is in the 
virtue and intelligence of her citizens. And as it is her real 
wealth, so is it also her real power. There have, to be sure, as 
history informs us, been ignorant nations, who have conquered 
those who were enlightened ; but these, I imagine, form mere 
exceptions to a general rule. Dominion obtained by the sword, 
must ever be transient ; the real abiding conquest is that of mind 
over mind ; and those only who have been known and distin- 
guished for their intellectual greatness, have always been the 
greatest promoters of human happiness, and universally received 
the homage, and attracted the admiration of the world. Greece, 
the once fair mistress of the arts and sciences, even now, with 
her demolished walls ; her ruined temples and her dismem- 
bered palaces, is still the wonder of mankind. Rome, once 
sitting like a haughty empress on her seven hills, but fallen by 
the hand of God, even now, with her crumbling monuments, 
her isolated noble columns, and her shattered senatorial seats, 
is the world’s study, and the world’s glory. And, my friends, 
I may add, Britain, with her eldest, and in many respects her 
loveliest daughter, America, from their superior knowledge, are 
now, and though they may fall from their greatness, are yet 
destined to be nations, whom after ages will “delighttohonour.” 

2 


10 


That the soul, then, be without knowledge is not good for the 
welfare of the nation. If, therefore, my beloved brethren, we 
have any wish for our children’s individual happiness ; if any 
patriotic feeling for the country of which we are the natural 
and loyal citizens ; and if any right sense of the worth of the 
immortal soul, which is to live after it has 

“ Shuffled off this mortal coil 

then we must be assiduous in obtaining knowledge. 

As we have met together this afternoon, my brethren, for a 
specified object, I shall take the liberty of bringing before you 
the advantages of an extended education; and if in view of the 
absolute necessity there is, of having those advantages extended 
among us, I shall, by my humble efforts, lead you to appreciate 
the subject duly, I shall not fear for the result of this sermon. 

There was a time, and some here may recollect it, when it 
was a moot point, whether the man of colour needed any edu- 
cation at all ; and in some of the controversies of that day , some 
unthinking minds went so far as to express a doubt, whether 
he had a faculty susceptible of receiving it. The objections in 
regard to the first question had their foundation laid in the very 
depths of prejudice. The coloured man was then looked upon 
as an object that was never to rise; but by a kind of necessity, 
doomed to be a “ hewer of wood and drawer of water for 
ever ;” # and therefore, to refine and elevate his mind, would 
be only to render him dissatisfied with his condition, and lead 
him to abuse his advantages. So may a man who has eyes, 
ears and hands, when trained to use them, pervert the use of 
them ; but none would therefore say, “ Put them out,” “ Stop 
them,” “ Bind them.” The last objection, to say nothing of its 
being insulting to that Great Almighty Being, who “of one 
blood has made all men who dwell upon the earth,” is too pre- 
posterous to be made now by any man in his sober senses. God 
has given every man who bears his image, faculties capable of 
expansion, and to give them a right, healthy direction, which 
can only be done by imparting a good education, will never 


* Joshua, ix. 21. 


11 


lead to the greatest amount of injury. Indeed, the surest pos- 
sible way to make individuals in every situation happy, and to 
prevent the public from receiving the greatest evil, is to extend 
to every class the blessings of an early, sound, thorough educa- 
tion.* 

To every individual, then, of a community, whatever may be 
his rank, condition, or colour, I here make the assertion, that 
three kinds of education are indispensably requisite ; without 
which he can neither make a useful man, a good citizen, nor an 
intelligent Christian. 

1. The first is that kind of education which is to prepare him 
for some particular trade or calling. This we will term “ pro- 
fessional education.” Its extent will in a great measure depend 
upon the calling or profession he may choose. 

2. The second is that education, which will teach him his 
several duties as a man and a citizen. This we shall call “mo- 
ral and political education.” 

3. The third is that education, which will teach him his du- 
ties to God, as a being accountable, and destined for immortal- 
ity. This we shall style “ religious education.” 

No man, we repeat it, whatever may be his intended sphere 
of action, can be said to be truly prepared to enter upon the du- 
ties of active life, who has not acquired knowledge from these 
three educations combined. 

As the ordinary period of a sermon will not allow me to enter 
at large upon either of these topics, I shall only dwell more par- 
ticularly upon the two first, and then urge upon you the import- 
ance of having all our children sent to those institutions, where 
they may best acquire the elements, at least, of that knowledge, 
so essential to making themselves useful and respectable, “ in 
whatever station of life it shall please God to call them.”f 

As to their professional education. I shall here pass over, as 

* Among the ancients, it was customary to give even their slaves a good educa- 
tion. This class of people among the Romans, with whom slavery existed to a 
great extent, were not confined only to domestic or field labour, but were likewise 
employed in various trades and manufactures. And it may be surprising to some 
to hear, that slaves were sometimes instructed in literature and the fine arts. Cic. 
Hor. Ep. 11. 2. 7. Many of the works now in our best learned libraries, and read 
with pleasure and profit by modern literati, were written by slaves. 

+ Church Catechism. 


12 


it would be somewhat irrelevant to our present object, that par- 
ticular sort of education which is essential to the learned profes- 
sions, and direct my remarks to the importance and necessity 
of educating our children for agricultural and mechanical pur- 
suits. 

These pursuits, my friends, which, in ancient times, were pa- 
tronized and followed by kings, princes, nobles, and senators, 
seem, in modern days, to be held in great disrepute. To be far- 
mers, or mechanics, is not, according to the false and proud no- 
tions of modern aristocrats, to be gentlemen; whereas, in point 
of fact, the former are the “ true lords of the soil and the 
latter, from their usefulness, demand as much respect, and should 
not yield their honours to any other class of society. It cannot 
be doubted, that the agriculturist constitutes the abiding strength 
of a nation — the truest source of prosperity — and that whatever 
other advantages it may possess, whatever its gaudy show, that 
nation, that people will surely be declining, whose agriculture 
is so. And, moreover, the mechanics, who contribute so essen- 
tially to the power and the riches, the comfort and the gran- 
deur of a nation, may, like Franklin and Rittenhouse, be the very 
pillars by which a nation is exalted in knowledge, power and 
dignity. 

To neglect, then, these occupations, which are so necessary 
to the weal of a government, is surely not to act the part of 
men, who possess a spirit of true patriotism ; nor is it to consult 
the welfare of our rising generation. 

The discredit w r hich, of late years, seems to have been thrown 
upon these employments, has, in my humble opinion, arisen from 
the unsound notions of what constitutes real worth, and from 
the erroneous impression that a mechanic cannot be what is 
commonly denominated, a “ learned man the truth is, how- 
ever, that great learning is as necessary to make an eminent 
mechanician, as to make an eminent physician, lawyer or di- 
vine. The same kind, to be sure, is not required; for what is 
requisite for the one is not for the other, and vice versa. A man, 
therefore, who has a good trade, should esteem himself as ho- 
nourable and dignified, with his tools, as the professional man 
with his books, and should also labour and study as hard to im- 


prove all his powers, and elevate and adorn his calling. Peter 
the Great, the mighty Autocrat of Russia, was not ashamed to 
become a working carpenter; and names as proud as his might 
be mentioned, who have laid society under the deepest obliga- 
tions for their mechanical ingenuity. 

In this country, in particular, I might here observe, where no 
man is bound by the chains of caste in his descent, a vast majo- 
rity must be mechanics or agriculturists. It is necessary, there- 
fore, that these branches be deeply and extensively studied. 
By our own people, it would seem to be a subject of policy, as 
well as private interest, that we turn our attention immediate- 
lv, and extensively, to both of these employments. Our very 
elevation as a people, under the peculiar circumstances of our 
case, depends now upon our being scientific mechanics, and in- 
telligent, wealthy farmers. In these pursuits there are fewer 
obstacles in our way to. obtaining wealth and character as indivi- 
duals — and in them, the most speedy way to secure respecta- 
bility and influence in the community. “ The God of Heaven,” 
as it has been most emphatically said, “ smiles upon cultiva- 
tors/ ’* 

Let us, then, in encouraging education among ourselves, edu- 
cate our sons to be farmers and mechanics, f Knowledge of 
these pursuits, will be to us power — power to us, not only as in- 
dividuals, but also as a community. “To be without it,” then, 
brethren, “ is not good.” 

The education which I have ranked second, can scarcely be 
said, however, to be of secondary importance. As far as that 
elevation of mind is concerned, by which a man may attain 
moral excellence in his calling or profession, and a people com- 
mand the respect of civilized and intelligent nations, it is para- 
mount. Poor, then, must be that system of education, and sin- 

* Rev, S. E. Cornish, Ed. Coloured American. 

+ It is not intended by this remark to be understood that all must be farmers and 
mechanics ; some among us must be physicians, lawyers, divines. For whatever 
situation, however, they may be destined, as broad a foundation as possible should 
be laid in their early education. Where circumstances permit, let a full aca- 
demical course be given ; and let those, and those only, who, in addition to 
all other necessary qualifications, possess sterling talent, be encouraged to 
enter into either of the learned professions. 


14 


gularly indifferent must be those teachers, who do not inter- 
weave in their instructions, remarks which have a bearing upon 
those subjects which will fit their scholars to sustain that cha- 
racter which they must one day fill as men and citizens. The 
duties of both these situations, as sure as they are permitted by 
God to ripen into manhood, they must fulfil — and whatever may 
be the profession of their choice, they are intended to exert a 
great influence for benefit or for injury, to the body politic of 
which they may be members. What a serious reflection ! how 
should it urge every parent to look well to it, that their children 
receive such training, as will enable them to use their power for 
the good of society and the honour of themselves. 

The principles of morality, my friends and brethren, by which 
a man is to know his duty as a man ; to form a correct standard 
of right and wrong ; to judge correctly of truth ; to defend him- 
self from the cavilling and cunning sophistry of seducing men ; 
to be virtuous and good ; — the principles, 1 say, by which he 
is to lay a solid foundation for his just and consistent conduct, 
in his intercourse with his fellow men, are not, I do assure you, 
to be acquired in a day ; but only by long, faithful, persevering 
study. Mixing, then, as children do in our larger cities, in all 
kinds of society ; seeing, as they must, all kinds of vice, and 
hearing all manner of vulgar and wicked conversation, it is 
necessary that great and unremitting attention be paid to their 
moral education, in order to preserve them from the shoals and 
quicksands, which may dash them to pieces, and desolate them 
for ever. 

But again ; as our children are not to “ live unto themselves,” 
but are to become component parts of a great whole, it is ex- 
tremely important that they receive, also, that particular sort of 
knowledge, which will prepare them to be useful and intelligent 
citizens, namely, political. 

I do not speak in this place, let it be remembered, as a poli- 
tician advocating the side of any particular party. I never 
have, and I hope I never shall be induced to turn my pulpit into 
a forum for the discussion of any subject purely political. I 
simply speak here of that knowledge which all ought to pos- 
sess, to make intelligent citizens ; to make them acquainted with 


15 


the fundamental principles of political truth ; to know what 
constitutes civil and political liberty, and the nature and ex- 
tent of that civil obedience which every man is bound to render 
to the constitution and laws under which he may be placed. 
Ignorant of these things, there will most surely, my brethren, 
be a liability of man’s “using his liberty as a cloak of malicious- 
ness.”*' And furthermore, his obligations of obedience not being 
fully understood, he may be led to an untimely and unjustifi- 
able rebellion. By inculcating, therefore, these principles, I 
conceive that the great ends will be answered, of making our 
people intelligent citizens, and causing them, from motives of en- 
lightened duty, to act, as they always have acted, worthy of the 
land of their nativity, and loyal to its interests. 

A nation’s happiness, I may here safely make the observa- 
tion, in opposition to the old political maximf of tyrants and op- 
pressors, depends upon the general diffusion of knowledge. It 
is dangerous, indeed, when a country has within its limits a vast 
population of ignorant men. These always breed disturbances, 
foment riots, break the public peace, and are always made the 
willing tools of wicked and crafty demagogues, who, to satiate 
their lust, will suggest the most unhallowed measures, bid de- 
fiance to all laws, and basely trample upon justice and human- 
ity. Let the people, then, have this education, and theirs will be 
the pleasing duty to cultivate peace, yield obedience to all just 
and humane laws, and willingly make sacrifices for the interests 
of their common country. And here, my friends, I am proud 
to have it in my power to make the remark, that there have 
been among us, those whose patriotic spirit once led them to 
lay down their lives in the memorable struggle for our national 
independence ; and, furthermore, that there are even now in 
our midst, those whose names I might mention, who, triumph- 
ing over the mountain difficulties which lie in their way, have, 
by their enterprise, integrity and intelligence, elevated them- 
selves to honour, influence and wealth, and raised for them- 
selves monuments more enduring than brass. 


* 1 Peter, ii. 16. 

t “ Ignorance in a people is the best safeguard of a government,” 


16 


To the particular consideration, now, of sending all our chil- 
dren to those institutions, where they may acquire at least the 
elements of knowledge, to fit them for respectability and use- 
fulness, I must hasten to direct your attention. 

There are, according to calculation, three thousand children 
of colour in this city. More than two thousand of whom, I re- 
gret to say to you, are running wild, impudent and ragged about 
the streets. Their parents are ignorant, and judging of their 
wills by their present deeds , they are to bequeath the dreadful 
legacy to their offspring. We may look now, my brethren, upon 
these children, scattered in various parts of this great metropo- 
lis, as our present hope; and we may cast our eyes but a few 
years forward, and behold them our stay and our strength. As 
possessing minds, it is not in the nature of their mind to be sta- 
tionary. If it advance not in the scale of virtue, it must fall in 
vice. Soft, like wax, it is now susceptible of receiving any im- 
pression that may be made upon it, be it favourable or unfa- 
vourable. But they are surrounded by influences, all of which 
are evil, and they are daily, ay, hourly receiving impressions, 
uncounteracted evil impressions, which will tell most awfully 
upon their future characters. They are growing prodigiously 
fast in vice, and soon will have arrived to the full stature of a 
man — man, did I say : no, my friends, but rather fiends in hu- 
man shape — sunk in deepest profligacy and crime, ready and 
hastening to draw thousands of others, companions in ignorance, 
into the dreadful vortex into which they have been plunged. 
Such, brethren, is a description of many of the characters which 
are to infest this city fifteen or twenty years hence. What now 
shall be done to check this swelling tide of ignorance, and stop 
the floodgates from pouring its deluge upon us? The great and 
solemn question must be decided by parents. They are the 
ones to whom is intrusted the future representation of our peo- 
ple — they are the ones who may prevent crime and immorality 
from abounding among us — they are the ones, who may snatch 
these little immortals from a state of ignorance, which will not 
only blast, like a dreaded sirocco , all the hopes and happiness 
for the world present, but will plunge them, unless saved by 
God’s grace, into those dark and joyless regions of the world 
to come. 


17 


Brethren, and fellow-citizens ! the public schools which, for 
the past thirty or forty years, have been devoted to the educa- 
tion of our youth, and are now fitted up in the finest style, with 
all the apparatus for a good English education, and furnished 
with able, accomplished and intelligent instructors of our own 
colour, are not half filled. Although the discipline and moral 
culture is sufficient to reform and preserve our juvenile popula- 
tion, yet they do not seem to be appreciated. For our apathy 
and indifference, we are, then, strongly threatened to be de- 
prived of these elegant schools — our excellent teachers removed 
from stations of usefulness and respectability, and our children, 
who are now there, sent to finish their education in the streets. 
It is to prevent this threatened calamity that I raise my feeble 
voice at this time. It is to excite in your minds a greater at- 
tention than ever to this work, that I would now exhort you. 
Every one here, this afternoon, may do something to send one 
or more children to the school in his district. The schools, my 
friends, must be filled, or there is no alternative — we must lose 
them. The consequences, then, if no other more costly plan is 
adopted, will be fatal to coloured interests. If they are lost, the 
majority of our rising generation must inevitably become vic- 
tims of ignorance — the greatest curse which can fall upon us. 
“ The heaviest weight,” said an old Athenian philosopher, la- 
conically, “ that the earth can bear, is an ignorant man.” If 
great exertions, then, are not made on this subject, we must fall, 
and be crushed by our own weight. 

I hope, therefore, my beloved brethren, that you will hence- 
forth be in earnest about this matter. For the filling up of these 
empty benches, each one here and in the community, can do 
much. In the different quarters of the city, there are many 
children, who come within your reach, and over whom you 
may have influence sufficient to induce to go to school, and thus 
be instruments of saving them from ruin and disgrace. I earn- 
estly pray, therefore, that all who feel for the interests, tem- 
poral and eternal, of these dear children ; who feel for the fu- 
ture character of our people, in which, too, our own is deep- 
ly and intimately involved, will be aroused. Now is the time 
to make the effort. Next year the schools may be gone ; then 
3 


18 


your repentance will have come too late. Your bitter, yet un- 
availing lamentation, will then be, “Alas! alas! that the soul 
be left without the opportunity of acquiring knowledge is not 
good.” 

As a Christian minister, I cannot, my dear brethren, close my 
brief and imperfect remarks, without urging upon your atten- 
tion that infinitely more important subject of educating your 
own souls, and the souls of your children also, for a higher and 
nobler state of existence. Let the streams, however, of human 
knowledge still roll on, unchecked among us, like our majestic 
Hudson — let them run into every mind, enriching and fertilising 
it — but oh ! let the streams be mixed and sweetened with that 
knowledge which is from above. Without this, after all, my 
brethren, our principles cannot be sound, nor our motives alto- 
gether pure. While, then, we do, as I hope we ever shall, en- 
courage literature and science among us, preparing our sons 
and our daughters to be polished stones in the walls of our re- 
public — honoured instruments of doing good in their genera- 
tion, let us not forget to train their immortal souls by a reason- 
able, steady, prayerful course of religious training for the world 
to come. Let us keep them and ourselves constantly in mind, 
that even after a long life of the most painful and diligent study, 
however great may seem to be our earthly attainments, or how- 
ever high we may have risen in the scale of human excellence, 
we are still but infants in knowledge — just beginning to learn, 
when ready to die. 

ft' Newton, who by his mighty intellect and extensive learning 
is rendered immortal, at the close of his glorious career, made 
to the world this humble acknowledgment, which ought to 
humble the pride of those of less gifted minds and more slender 
acquirements : — “ I stand,” said he, “ but upon the shore, while 
the whole ocean of truth lies unexplored before me.” With all 
thy getting, then, get wisdom. “ The fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of true wisdom.” Let us pray, then, my beloved 
brethren, that we may increase more and more in this Godly 
wisdom, that we may become “ babes in Christ,”* and our souls 


* 1 Cor., iii, 1. 


19 


purified and sanctified in the blood of our dear Redeemer. As 
Christians, let us pray sincerely that “ the knowledge of the 
Lord may cover the earth as the waters cover the sea;”* that 
our children, under its hallowed influence, may become vir- 
tuous and honourable men and citizens, fit to have committed 
to their charge the growing and solemn interests of our people, 
and prepared, through the merits of our Saviour, and the sanc- 
tifying power of the ever blessed Spirit, to enter upon that 
glorious and eternal state of being, where all the faculties of 
the soul will ever be engaged in the study of the Almighty 
and Infinite God. 


♦ Heb., ii. 14. 


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